Identification of Informed Consent Implementation in Midwifery Services: A Description Study

Abstract

Midwifery services must be provided by midwives by implementing legal ethics in midwifery. This ethics can be fulfilled by giving informed consent before performing midwifery services. Informed consent is obtained by giving information about the midwifery services that will be provided to the patient and asking the patient to sign the midwifery service agreement sheet indicating that the patient is willing to receive the provided midwifery information and services as well as all the possible consequences. Informed consent is required when midwives provide care for pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and newborns. The objective of this study was to identify the implementation of informed consent by midwives in providing midwifery services in health care facilities such as hospitals, health centers, and autonomous midwifery practices. This research was a descriptive study with a cross-sectional approach involving 71 midwives in Pekalongan Regency. It was carried out in March 2021 by distributing questionnaires to the participating midwives who were selected through a quota sampling method. The collected data were analyzed by using central tendency and frequency distribution. The results of data analysis showed that the average age of the participants was 36.5 years old, the average length of work was 12.8 years, and the education level of the majority of them was diploma three (69%). A total of 70.4% of the midwives obtained informed consent before providing midwifery services. This number indicates that there were midwifery services that had not implemented ethical and legal aspects. The ethical and legal noncompliance cases in midwifery services might increase if no effort to achieve 100% informed consent implementation was taken. Therefore, regulation that manage and bind midwives in carrying out informed consent to achieve 100% implementation of it in midwifery services is needed.